Weapons

Dark Souls is an incredibly harsh, incredibly unforgiving world. The difference between life and death often hangs on one thing, and that's choosing the right weapon.

Depending on player preference - and character abilities - a character may or may not be able to wield a particular weapon. If your character isn't strong enough to swing a sword this will result in a penalty to any strikes, basically rendering the weapon useless until the player's stats are high enough to comfortably wield the weapon.

Weapons also drastically change the player's attack animations. Spears in particular differ from other items due to their abilities to be used while blocking, and they also have longer reach than items such as swords. Several items also have entirely unique exclusive animations.